Job 34:6
in Job 34Would I lie about my case? My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Notwithstanding my right I am accounted a liar; My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.
KJV
Should I lie against my right? my wound is incurable without transgression.
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This verse in Job 34
Commentary
9 notes on this verseFor Job hath said, I am just, and God hath subverted my judgment. For in judging me there is falsehood: and mine arrow is violent without any sin. He complains that Job had spoken these things, [See chap. 27, 2] which the words of the sacred history prove on examination that he had never said. But he, who had sought for a judgment on equal terms, proceeds to promulgate a sentence from a fault of his own invention.
This site's exposition
I am righteous
on Job 34:5-9
Elihu tightens Job's complaints into one claim, “I am righteous, yet God has deprived me of justice”. Barnes notes that the man who “drinks up derision like water”, and the saying of verse 9, go further than anything Job said. Clarke calls verses 8 and 9 Elihu's weakest move.
This site's exposition
My wound is incurable
The Hebrew word behind wound is literally arrow, the shaft by which Job is pierced, according to Jamieson, Fausset and Brown. John Gill hears Job 27:4 behind the whole verse. Job had refused there to call himself wicked against his own conscience.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Eliud interprets these words in the worst sense. For Job had said that his cause had been rejected not because he thought that punishments were inflicted on him not by a judgment of one who punishes a fault, but as justice according to providence with …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Should I lie against my right?.... No; I ought not: this though Job had not said in so many words, yet this seems to be his sense in Job 27:4; that should he own and say that he was a wicked man, a hypocrite, and destitute of the grace of God, he should not only speak against himself, but, contrary to his conscience, say an untruth, and not do justice to his character.
Job had spoken to this purport, My righteousness I hold fast, ch. xxvii. (2.) He had charged God with injustice in his dealings with him, that he had wronged him in afflicting him and had not righted him: God has taken away my judgment; so Job had said, ch. xxvii.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
Should I lie against my right? - Should I acknowledge myself the sinner which they paint me, and thus lie against my right to assert and maintain my innocence? My wound is incurable without transgression - If this translation is correct, the meaning of the place is sufficiently evident. In the tribulation which I endure, I am treated as if I were the worst of culprits; and I labor under incurable maladies and privations, though without any cause on my part for such treatment.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Were I to renounce my right (that is, confess myself guilty), I should die. Job virtually had said so (Job 27:4, 5; MAURER, not so well, "Notwithstanding my right (innocence) I am treated as a liar," by God, by His afflicting me. my wound--literally, "mine arrow," namely, by which I am pierced.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Should I lie against my right? - These are also quoted as the words of Job, and as a part of the erroneous opinions on which Elihu proposes to comment. These words do not occur, however, as used by Job respecting himself, and Elihu must be understood to refer to what he regarded as the general strain of the argument maintained by him. In regard to the meaning of the words, there have been various opinions. Jerome renders them, “For in judging me there is falsehood - mendacium est; my violent arrow (the painful arrow in me) is without any sin.” The Septuagint, “He the Lord hath been false in my accusation” - ἐψένσατο δὲ τῳ κρίματί μου epseusato de tō krimati mou - “my arrow is heavy without transgression.” Coverdale, “I must needs be a liar, though my cause be right.” Umbreit renders it, “I must lie if I should acknowledge myself to be guilty.” Noyes, “Though I am innocent, I am made a liar.” Prof. Lee, “Should I lie respecting my case? mine arrow is mortal without transgression.” That is, Job said he could not lie about it; he could use no language that would deceive. He felt that a mortal arrow had reached him without transgression, or without any adequate cause. Rosenmuller renders it, “However just may be my cause, I appear to be a liar.” That is, he was regarded as guilty, and treated accordingly, however conscious he might be of innocence, and however strenuously he might maintain that he was not guilty. The meaning probably is, “I am held to be a liar. I defend myself; go over my past life; state my course of conduct; meet the accusations of my friends, but in all this I am still held to be a liar. My friends so regard me - for they will not credit my statements, and they go on still to argue as if I was the most guilty of mortals. And God also in this holds me to be a liar, for he treats me constantly as if I were guilty. […]
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| מִשְׁפָּטִ֥י | mishpati | right my | H4941 → | 422 times |
| אֲכַזֵּ֑ב | ʾakhazev | will I lie? | H3576 → | 16 times |
| אָנ֖וּשׁ | ʾanush | [is] incurable | H605 → | |
| חִצִּ֣י | chitzi | arrow my | H2671 → | |
| בְלִי־ | veli- | not | H1097 → | 58 times |
| פָֽשַׁע׃ | fasha' | transgression | H6588 → | 93 times |
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
מִשְׁפָּטִ֥יright my
mishpatiH4941 →422 times
אֲכַזֵּ֑בwill I lie?
ʾakhazevH3576 →16 times
אָנ֖וּשׁ[is] incurable
ʾanushH605 →
חִצִּ֣יarrow my
chitziH2671 →
בְלִי־not
veli-H1097 →58 times
פָֽשַׁע׃transgression
fasha'H6588 →93 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Job 6:4For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
it leads to
- Psalms 38:2
For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me.
- Job 30:15
Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.
- Psalms 88:15–16
From my youth I was afflicted and near death. I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair.
- Proverbs 18:14
The spirit of a man can endure his sickness, but who can survive a broken spirit?
- Psalms 143:7
Answer me quickly, O LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide Your face from me, or I will be like those who descend to the Pit.
- Psalms 38:2
Through
Job 16:13His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground.
it leads to
- Job 20:25
It is drawn out of his back, the gleaming point from his liver. Terrors come over him.
- Job 6:4
For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
- Lamentations 2:11
My eyes fail from weeping; I am churning within. My heart is poured out in grief over the destruction of the daughter of my people, because children and infants faint in the streets of…
- Job 20:25
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXIV; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.